Post-Apocalyptic Tabletop RPGs

[owenmp]

Here are a few post-apocalyptic tabletop RPGs that might interest Wasteland 2 fans.


Atomic Highway: Post-Apocalyptic Roleplaying
Radioactive Ape Designs and DriveThruRPG
http://radioactiveapedesigns.com
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_i ... s_id=70124


Barbarians of the Aftermath Expansion for Barbarians of Lemuria RPG
Cubicle 7, Jabberwocky Productions and DriveThruRPG
http://shop.cubicle7store.com
http://www.jabberwocky-media.com
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_i ... s_id=64387


Out of Print d20 Apocalypse
Wizards of the Coast
http://www.wizards.com


Out of Print d20 Redline
Fantasy Flight Games
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com


d20 Highwayman: Roleplaying in the World of Games Workshop's Miniatures Game Dark Future
Painted Target
http://futurehighways.roll2dice.com/redline/index.html
http://feggula.0dollarwebspace.com/df/index.html[list=][/list]


Deadlands: Hell on Earth Classic Edition
Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Studio 2 Publishing
http://www.peginc.com/games.html
http://www.studio2publishing.com/shop/i ... Path=27_86


Post-Apocalyptic HERO Expansion for HERO System Fifth Edition
HERO Games
http://www.herogames.com


Badlands
WormSpeaker
http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/cave/2822/
http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/cav ... chise.html


Highway Holocaust
Freeway Warrior 1
Author: Joe Dever
U.K. Publisher: Beaver Books (January 1, 1988)
U.S. Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group (October 1, 1989)


Out of Print Slaughter Mountain Run (U.K. Title) / Mountain Run (U.S. Title)
Freeway Warrior 2
Author: Joe Dever
U.K. Publisher: Red Fox (December 8, 1988)
U.S. Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group (February 1, 1990)


Out of Print The Omega Zone
Freeway Warrior 3
Author: Joe Dever
U.K. Publisher: Beaver Books (July 6, 1989)
U.S. Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group (May 1, 1990)


Out of Print California Countdown
Freeway Warrior 4
Author: Joe Dever
U.K. Publisher: Red Fox (November 2, 1989)
U.S. Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group (September 1, 1990)

[Quarex]

I am running an ongoing campaign using Savage Worlds (and the "Realms of Cthulhu" supplement) that is heavily inspired by Wasteland--except the players are all playing themselves, and the first dozen games of the campaign were them investigating cultist activity in their hometown. Only after the world ended did it become clear that it was actually a post-apocalyptic campaign the entire time.

But anyway, I can certainly confirm that Savage Worlds is a pretty good system for heroic-style post-apocalyptic adventure ... I also used the D20 Apocalypse book a fair amount for ideas on scavenging and other thematically appropriate moments, and can recommend it as well.

[BrotherMagneto]

Oh man, the Freeway Warrior books, I loved those when I was younger. And of course the Lone Wolf books Dever also wrote!

I'd definitely add Twilight:2000 to the list - I would be willing to bet it probably influenced Wasteland's development quite a bit back in the 1980s. Gamma World as well.

Also recommend (on the fun side) an RPG called Low Life, where you play the cockroaches, worms and - yes - Twinkies that evolve after everything else dies in the nuclear fire.

[savagehominid]

Apocalypse World is the a very good game as well. The focus of Apocalypse World is less "wandering" adventures, and more about the communities trying to survive. Players select a "playbook" (sort-of a class), each of which are thematically tied to the setting.

The rules are simple-ish, fast, and focused on creating a cool narrative in the moment. But not in the, a player rolls dice to narrate, but in how the rules are presented. Essentially, most Basic Moves are roll 2d6+stat, a 7-9 is a success with a complication, 10+is a full success (which what a complication or full success means spelled out in the rules). Games I've played/ran tend to have lots of interesting twists and turns because of how the rules are structured.

Summary, upsides the rules are very flavorful, playbooks are interesting, and its one of the coolest games to GM (a GM never rolls dice, instead a GM reacts to failed dice rolls, or sets up situations for players to use a move). Downsides are a few, I do not like "stat highlighting" for advancement, basically whenever a highlighted "stat" is tested you gain an XP, however this is easily fixed. The TEXT can be a little opaque in parts.

The game has a very active fan community, both on the official forum and story-games.com. Who have made tons of hacks, drifts, and rule tweaks. Check it!*

(Want a feel for the flavor? Download the character playbooks.)

[Relsden]

Also posted something in the Fan Fiction section along these lines but I wrote a Savage Worlds "Wasteland inspired" campaign setting a couple of years ago. Any SW players out there might want to check it out.

http://www.relsden.com

Edited to fix a broken link. Setting is called "Wasted Years" and can be found from the site's navigation

[Zudrak]

Oh man, the Freeway Warrior books, I loved those when I was younger. And of course the Lone Wolf books Dever also wrote!

I'd definitely add Twilight:2000 to the list - I would be willing to bet it probably influenced Wasteland's development quite a bit back in the 1980s. Gamma World as well.

Also recommend (on the fun side) an RPG called Low Life, where you play the cockroaches, worms and - yes - Twinkies that evolve after everything else dies in the nuclear fire.

Yes! Gamma World (1st & 2nd Edition) and Twilight: 2000 were my favorite futuristic games. I started collecting books from the 1st, 2nd, & 4th editions of GW, but they're so expensive. WL will scratch that PA itch.

Great thread.

[JeremyR]

There's also "Mutant Future" which is an attempt to create a retro-clone of Gamma World

http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

It's not all that close, since Gamma World wasn't released under the OGL, so basically it's a new Post Apocalyptic game built using the D&D rules, so not too unlike GW in how it plays.

[Proton Axeman]

Oh, Gamma World, land of black ray pistols, Death Machines, and fusion bombs.

[owenmp]

Post-Apocalyptic Media used to be the best Web site for post-apocalyptic and post-nuclear mythology. The format of the site and access to its files is now less user-friendly.

BoardGameGeek, RPG Geek and Video Game Geek are comprehensive Web sites discussing boardgames, RPGs and electronic games, but they are not focused on post-apocalyptic titles.

If anyone is interested and there is not a Web site already available, I will gladly post on my site a comprehensive list of post-apocalyptic and post-nuclear boardgames, tabletop RPGs and electronic games.